Carpenters restore 17th-century Aptucxet trading post

Friday

Mar 26, 2010 at 2:00 AMMar 26, 2010 at 5:50 AM

BOURNE — At the Aptucxet Trading Post in Bourne yesterday, one carpenter used a cast-iron tool to make clapboards while another inspected wood recently cut with a handsaw that will be used to make shingles.

heather wysocki

BOURNE — At the Aptucxet Trading Post in Bourne yesterday, one carpenter used a cast-iron tool to make clapboards while another inspected wood recently cut with a handsaw that will be used to make shingles.

The usual sights and sounds of a construction site were absent, but the trading post isn't an average construction site.

Restoration began two years ago at the Monument Beach building, a replica of a 17th-century Pilgrim outpost. Voters approved $97,000 in Community Preservation Act funds to pay for a new roof, siding and windows for the building, said self-titled "unofficial project manager" Jack MacDonald.

MacDonald owns Osprey Design Inc., one of four companies completing work on the building.

The project is almost done, said MacDonald. The Bourne Historical Society, which operates the trading post as a museum, hopes to re-open in mid-May.

The building, partially constructed with wood from a 17th-century Western Massachusetts building, was "in desperate need of repair," he said.

When the historical society put in its bid for community preservation funds in 2008, shingles were falling off and there was severe wood rot in some areas, said MacDonald.

All work is being done by preservationists, who strive to recreate buildings as authentically as possible by using tools and techniques the original builders would have used, he said.

MacDonald built the trading post's roof with cedar shakes and tried to rely as little as possible on modern technology.

"We strive to be authentic in our craft," he said.

Dave Wheelock, a preservation carpenter with MLB Restorations working on the trading post's exterior walls, said he uses replicas of tools settlers may have had almost400 years ago.

"It's basically just a big iron wedge," Wheelock said of the froe, an ax-like instrument used to split wood. He used the tool to create clapboards for the building.

Wheelock, a former carpenter at Plimoth Plantation who helped build the Mayflower replica there, said preservationists also rely on archaeological research to ensure authenticity.

Over the years, MacDonald said, archaeologists and historical society members have debated whether the site of the trading post museum is entirely accurate.

That controversy keeps the history of the building alive, MacDonald said.

Presumptions are challenged all the time by visiting historians and society members, he said. "We learn something new every day."

MacDonald is past president of the Bourne Historical Society and a current member of the town of Bourne's community preservation and historical committees.

He disclosed his conflict of interest to the board of selectmen and recused himself from voting in both committees in accordance with Massachusetts law, Town Administrator Tom Guerino said.